Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Glow in the Dark Lanterns

My favourite internet find that I made for the little miss' glow in the dark birthday party were these great glow in the dark lanterns! I had seen other types of glow in the dark lanterns that use the goo from broken glow sticks, but what I liked about these ones was that they are made with glow in the dark pigment powder which is rechargeable and would last for more than just the night of the party.

I was thrilled to find that the lantern instructions are from a blog written by someone in New Zealand, as it meant that I would probably be able to find all of the 'ingredients' I needed without too much trouble. In fact, the hardest part was finding 6 glass jars to make the lanterns out of! I didn't want them to be too big, or too funny of a shape, and I wanted them to all be the same. However, I soon realized that finding enough empty jars all the same size & shape (without having to go out & buy any) was just not going to happen. As it turns out nobody (including the very particular little miss) cared that they weren't all the same size.

We had the jars displayed on a shelf for the party, but with all the glow lights in the room it wasn't actually dark enough to see the lanterns glow. I wrote a little note on each lantern with the child's name saying "Thank you for helping to brighten up my party." and the little miss handed them out as the children left. This (along with the many glow sticks & light wands they were playing with throughout the night) was given as a little thank-you gift instead of a loot bag.

I made my lanterns a bit differently from the instructions as per the link above, but I did copy the basic idea. The blogger noted that the pigment she bought the first time was not water soluble, so when she mixed it with the glue it turned into a solid glowing lump. The company I bought mine from actually sells a water soluble pigment as well as the non soluble one, and I liked the idea of just mixing it with regular while glue and painting it on the inside of the jars, so I did that. I also put some glitter in to the glue/pigment mix and painted it all on in one go! As the little miss would say, it was easy peasy lemon squeezy! Rather than paint the lids, I let the little miss choose some fabrics from my scraps drawer and I tied on a nice little ribbon with a handle.

It's been almost 4 months since the little miss' party and she still loves her lantern! She takes it to bed every night and it's still glowing just as brightly as it did the night of her party.

Note: I did try to take photos of the lanterns glowing, but no matter how many times & ways I tried I just couldn't do it. Apparently glow in the dark photography is NOT my thing - you'll just have to trust me that they look awesome in the dark! ;)

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I'm a stay at home mum that likes to make things in my spare time. I have a little girl and a little boy that are usually on the receiving end of my creative adventures, but sometimes I also make things to sell.